1732–1809

Composer

Early Years.

Josef Haydn's long life and career spanned the transition from the late Baroque to the Romantic era. Born into a modest family of artisans, his relatives were nonetheless musical. A local schoolteacher offered the young Haydn the opportunity to attend school, and within a few years he had been invited to become a choirboy at St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna, a post he accepted at the age of seven. Once his voice changed and he was forced to leave the choir, he spent several years as a freelance teacher, studying composition on his own, including the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Mutual friends put him in contact with the composer Nicola Porpora, who hired him as an accompanist for his voice students, helped him with composition, and introduced him to prominent musicians and patrons. His "Missa brevis in F" dates from these...